RTÉ’s Home of the Year TV show has taken us into the livingrooms of houseproud owners across the country. As well as showcasing talent, the show provides would-be buyers with another way to home-hunt from the comfort of their couch. This season’s winner, management consultant Jen Sheahan, had several notes of enquiry posted through her letterbox once the episode featuring her home aired, and fellow finalist Kevin Desmond, the owner of 29 Heytesbury Street, was approached by buyers and agents on the back of opening his door to the camera crew.
It was this unexpected attention that prompted him to put it up for sale.
Desmond has always been a fan of period homes. “I grew up in one and loved the proportions,” he says. While the family home had no heating, he favours all the creature comforts modernity can buy.
“I like bringing old homes to life,” he says; and he has form in this, having already refurbished several. His previous residence, Grove House, at 37 Synge Street, was given a complete makeover from when he purchased it in 2012 for €400,000 to when he put the four-bedroom period house on the market in April 2018 for €1.5 million. It sold the following February for €1.4 million.
Two months later he purchased this villa-style property for €675,000, according to the Property Price Register. It is on the west side of Heytesbury Street, a part of Portobello that is considered the quiet side of the quarter as it is just far enough away from Camden Street’s nightclub and late bar buzz to ensure sleep isn’t disturbed by late-night revelry.
While the house had great bones, granite sills and steps to the front, original railings, ceiling heights of 11ft at hall level and 9ft at garden level, large windows, and a garden that faces the setting sun, it is the unseen investment, the kind you can feel, that is notable in the works done here. The property will be as at home with a minimal style of decor as its current classical contemporary look, because all the hard work is done. It measures about 150sq m (1,614sq ft) and is Ber-exempt.
Under the watchful eye of architect Thomas McGimsey of specialist conservation practice Mesh, Desmond installed breathable insulation board to the exterior walls, insulated the attic and between the floor joists at entrance level.
The uPVC windows were replaced by double-glazed sliding sash styles that dial down any traffic noise from the busy road out front.
The door opens into a broad timber-floored hall that is painted a soft and restful shade of green; this colour is carried through to the drawing-room, which overlooks the lushly planted front garden. The first of the property’s three double bedrooms is also at this level.
On the return is a second double and these share a wetroom that is tiled in a majorelle shade of blue and features a smart two-in-one basin-cum-toilet that saves on space as well as repurposing tap water for grey water use in the toilet. Down at garden level is a flagstone floor, where most of the slabs are original to the house, and were relaid atop a damp-proof membrane and concrete base.
Through tall and multi-paned timber doors, painted the same Book Room Red as some of the units, is the kitchen, all by the Victorian Kitchen Company. This is a surprisingly large space, floored in a honey-coloured parquet, laid in a herringbone pattern, which once graced the interior of a Belfast church.
There is a separate front entrance under the granite steps. This is where Desmond moved the water tank and pump from the attic to make both far more accessible.
The third double bedroom overlooks the garden. There’s another lovely shower-room in the return whose look was built around a pair of copper sinks Desmond picked up at Mullen’s auction house in Laurel Park, Bray.
Accessed via a half door, the back garden gets both morning and evening sun. It has granite and limestone street cobble paving a path from the return to the garden house, a separate space of about 30sq m (322sq ft) which extends across the back of the property and comprises a bedroom, ensuite shower-room and office as well as pedestrian rear access to a gated lane that runs behind the terrace of houses. Desmond has raised beds of fruit and vegetables here.
The house is scheduled to be sold by auction on June 30th by agent Eunan Doherty of DNG. It has an AMV of €1.5 million.
